Humans love to measure time, don’t we? But as much as we love our seconds, minutes, hours, and decades, all of those are human constructs. The only two measurements of time we have that are actually tied to the physical realm are days (the amount of time that it takes the Earth to rotate once) and the year (one full go around the sun, though January 1 is still arbitrary because we made up months!).

It’s nice to have the new year, though, isn’t it? We might not be able to reset our age, but we can give ourselves a mental “do-over,” giving us time to reflect on what we’d like to do with this next trip around the sun. The most common resolution is to lose weight, of course. Stopping smoking, getting more organized, and spending less money on frivolous things are other common promises people make to themselves.

Though not the most common resolution, “getting a better job” is on the list for 5% of Americans. If that’s something that you’ve resolved to do, you’re in luck, because DaVinci Coders has coding classes lasting about 20 weeks that can almost certainly get you a job that’s better than the one you currently have. We have four coding bootcamps that start up here at the beginning of the year.

Ruby on Rails training: January 30

JavaScript coding classes: January 23

Python coding classes: February 21

Game Development coding bootcamp: March 6

If you’re determined to get a better job and have, in fact, set it as a New Year’s Resolution, here are some things you need to do to in order to keep it.

Make It Specific - Making vague promises to yourself to “lose weight” never works, but putting a specific number on it -- “I want to lose 10 pounds” -- gives you a reachable goal. Similarly, you can’t just say “I want to learn to code.” A better resolution would be “I want to learn a well-known coding language in less than half-a-year that can get me a job as a junior programmer.”

Don’t Make Too Many Resolutions - If you make 10 resolutions, it’s unlikely you’ll stick with all of them. Once you give up on the first one, it’s easier to let the others fall away. And after a while all 10 will be out of your mind. Instead, pick the one that’s most important to you and put your energy into that one.

Be Prepared to Change - If you resolve to lose weight, you’ll have to change the way you eat. If you choose to go to a programming school like DaVinci Coders, be prepared to change your social life for the next 20+ weeks. Our coding bootcamps are all at night, so during that time you’ll probably be seeing your friends a little less. Still, classes are only three nights a week, and in the end it’s definitely worth it.

The fact is, New Year’s resolutions can be hard to keep up with, but here’s one more thing you need to do: commit. Put your money where your resolution is and check out our coding classes to find out which one is for you.